PAT CAPUTO: Bitter end should not diminish the Tigers' otherwise sweet journey

It would be wrong to remember the 2012 Tigers by the way the season ended.

There was much more to it than being swept by the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.

There was a disappointing start after high expectations, and a resurgence in the middle of the season.

There was what seemed to be a collapse. When the Tigers fell three games down to the Chicago White Sox with 16 to go, they were essentially buried. They not only won the American League Central, but beat the A's and swept the Yankees in the playoffs.

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This season was not a failure for the Tigers.

"If somebody told me before the season we'd be in the World Series, I'd taken that," manager Jim Leyland said.

The World Series, however, could not have been more disappointing.

While the Tigers won their second American League pennant in seven years, and as such are one of Major League Baseball's elite teams, they aren't the best of the best.

The Giants clearly are after completing the rout with a 4-3, Game 4 victory Sunday night at Comerica Park.

"There were no bad breaks, no flukes, they just played better than we did," Leyland said.

It was a rough series for the Tigers, ending fittingly when Miguel Cabrera, who did not come through in the clutch in the set, took a called third strike from Giants' closer Sergio Romo.

The Tigers were a tale of two teams this season.

The good Tigers were a club that would hit with runners in scoring position, surprisingly make a good play when it mattered despite a reputation for being defensively challenged and pitch well, especially the starters.

There were reasons, however, the Tigers compiled only the seventh-best record in the American League during the regular season. The biggest was the lack of consistency among the hitters.

The Tigers didn't just go through dry spells. The visited endless deserts of outs.

Their two best hitters, Cabrera and Prince Fielder, were not immune from the lumber slumber in the end. Cabrera gave the Tigers a wind-aided, two-run homer Sunday, and the Tigers took a brief lead. It was only time they led in the series.

"We got into the World Series and just sputtered offensively," Leyland said.

The Tigers were huge favorites entering the series, but in retrospect, it's impossible not to wonder why.

The Giants won 94 games this season. The National League West was a stronger division than the American League Central, too.

The National League was better than the American League overall, as well.

The Cincinnati Reds and the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals were more formidable conquests for the Giants than the Tigers beating the overachieving A's and the imploding Yankees.

The Giants are the club with the championship pedigree, having won the World Series as recently as 2010 with many of the same players.

The Giants made all the plays defensively - and from virtually every spot on the field. Tigers ace Justin Verlander faltered in Game 1. None of the Giants starting pitchers struggled. In a match of bullpens, it wasn't even close. The Giants bullpen is considerably better.

"We just didn't do enough," Leyland said. "I mean, if it goes to a seventh game and you lose on a freak play, you might say, 'We are as good as they are.' But in this series, we were not as good as they were. It was simple."

The four-game sweep says it all about the World Series, but not nearly enough about the Tigers' season in totality.